Implement for unstopping bottles.



No. 63l,872. Patented Aug. 29, I899. S. JOHNSTON. IMPLEMENT FOR UNSTUPPING BOTTLES.

(Application filed Mar. 4, 1898.)

(No Model.)

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SAVILLE JOHNSTON, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS."

IMPLEMENT FOR UNSTOPPING BOTTLES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 631,872, dated August 29, 1899} Application filed March 4, 1898. Serial No. 672,516. (No model.)

To (ZZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, SAVILLE JOHNSTON, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Implements for Unstopping Bottles, of which the following is a description sufficiently full, clear, and exact to enable those skilled in the art to which it appertains or with which it is most nearly connected to make and use the same.

This invention has relation to a device for unstopping and uncorkin g bottles; and it has for its object the provision of means having such structural characteristics as shall well adapt it to perform the operation of opening all bottles stoppered by the common means or methods.

I propose to employ my invention in connection with a pocket-knife, connecting it with the handle and in some respects using it in a manner similar to that in which ablade of the knife is employed, though I may employ it in other ways and use it separate from any other device or contrivance.

Reference is to be had to the annexed drawings, and to the letters marked thereon, forming a part of this specification, the same letters designating the same parts or features, as the case may be, wherever they occur.

Of the drawings, Figure l is a side elevation of the invention, showing it as applied to a knife-handle and representing the latter as though it were partially transparent. Fig. 2 is a bottom view of what is represented in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1 and looking against the end from left to right. Fig. 4 is a side view showing the manner of operating the invention in connection with a crown-stopper. Fig. 5 is a side view showing the manner of using the invention to unstop a bottle in which a patent stopper is employed.

In the drawings, Ct designates the body of my improved bottle-unstopping implement, from which body part there projects a relatively long and slightly-curved arm I). The said arm is provided on its inner face and outer end with a rounded recess 0, so as to make the end of the arm to consist of a kind of a hook, as is most clearly shown in Fig. 1. From the other edge or side of the body portion CL there projects a short curved arm d,

which terminates in a claw e of bifurcated form, though it may be otherwise suitably shaped.

The inner face of the arm I) is beveled in opposite directions, so as to form a sharpened ridge f therealong, which ridge may extend the entire length of the arm or but a short distance, the balance of the inner face of the arm being otherwise shaped.

This implement is shown in the drawings as pivotally connected with a pocket-knife handle g, so as to be closed or folded into the handle or opened out therefrom in a manner similar to a knife-blade. Any other than a dle for the device.

With the implement opened out, as shown, in case a patent stopper-that is, a stopper having a staple or its equivalent extending outward from its topis desired to be drawn from a bottle, the hookc will be caught in the bow of the staple, resting the arm on the edge of the top of the bottle, and by operating the handle as a lever the stopper can be easily d rawn.

If the bottle should be closed with what is commonly known as a crown stopper, which is a metallic cap crimped at its edge over a rim or beadon the margin of the mouth of the bottle, then the claw a may be caught under the edge of the cap and withabearing at a point along the arm I) as the fulcrumpoint the cap can be easily pried off by lifting upward on the handle g. I

In case an ordinary cork is used as a stopper, having a wire to tie it down, the arm I) may be run around the neck of the bottle under the wire and in this way out the wire, so as to permit of the removal of the cork.

This invention, in connection witha cork screw, provides means whereby any commonly-stoppered bottle may be uncorked or unstopped, and it is the desire to produce an implement capable of performing the hereinbefore-mentioned functions that has resulted in this invention.

Figs. 4 and 5 give illustrations of some of the ways of using the invention.

The implement can be rendered serviceable to a degree by the employment of some of the features mentioned and omitting others; but such changes as a mechanic may knife-handle may, however, be used as a hanmake therein without essentially altering its construction and mode of operation I would not regard as a departure from my invention.

Having th us explained the nature of the invention and described a Way of constructing and using the same, though Without attempting to set forth all of the 'forms in which it may be made or all of the modes of its use, it is declared that what is claimed is- An implement for unstopping bottles comprising a single blade formed with two oppositely-curved arms of unequal length, the

Witnesses:

ARTHUR W. CRossLEY, ANNIE J. DAILEY. 

